Congress had a lengthy to-do list as the end of the year approached, with a series of measures that needed action before 2013 began. Some of the items passed (a fiscal agreement, a temporary farm bill), while others didn’t (relief funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy).

And then there’s the Violence Against Women Act, which was supposed to be one of the year’s easy ones. It wasn’t.

Back in April, the Senate approved VAWA reauthorization fairly easily, with a 68 to 31 vote. The bill was co-written by a liberal Democrat (Vermont’s Pat Leahy) and a conservative Republican (Idaho’s Mike Crapo), and seemed on track to be reauthorized without much of a fuss, just as it was in 2000 and 2005.

But House Republicans insisted the bill is too supportive of immigrants, the LGBT community, and Native Americans — and they’d rather let the law expire than approve a slightly expanded proposal. Vice President Biden, who helped write the original law, tried to persuade House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to keep the law alive, but the efforts didn’t go anywhere.

And so, for the first time since 1994, the Violence Against Women Act is no more.

If you were to listen to the usual suspects you would think the Republicans just legalized domestic violence. But believe it or not domestic violence is still illegal in all 57 states. As a matter of fact, domestic violence is normally not a federal offense anyway, just like rape, robbery and murder are not.

The Violence Against Women Act is the kind of legislation the Democrats love. It gives them a chance to hand out some federal largesse and with a name like that it’s political suicide to oppose it. Heads we win, tails they lose.

I’m not saying it’s a bad law. There are definitely some worthy parts to it. But instead of breaking it into pieces and voting on them individually VAWA is a bundle of a bunch of different stuff and the GOP has to take it or leave it as-is. This most recent “reauthorization” also includes some new stuff that wasn’t in the original act.

The act dishes out about $500 million dollars a year – about equal to what we lost on Solyndra. As the Vile Progs assured us then, half a billion dollars ain’t that much money. It’s about 45 minutes worth of our annual federal spending.

I am firmly opposed to domestic violence but I also have a general objection to the creeping federalization of government. Every one of the thousands of federal grants and programs out there has a worthy purpose. They also have strings attached. And as the saying goes, “One man’s pork is another man’s dinner”.

Just because an act has a worthy purpose doesn’t mean it’s a worthy law. Nor does it mean that its necessary. Keep in mind who we’re talking about here: congresscritters. They can’t be trusted. Be especially wary when they make emotional appeals. They are trying to manipulate you.

If your husband is abusing you leave. Odds are the justice system will milk him for everything he has and you’ll be better of finically than before. If you think he might abuse the children then accuse him of it. The courts will believe you at your say so. It also means more money for you!. But go ahead and support corruption it shows the world who you really are.

my husband and I had an agreement . He could hit me once but never go to sleep again,because he would never know when I would get him. one of my favorite movies was The Burning Bed and my heroine is Lorena Bobbitt.

I am very cranky. The cats are making me crazy- this waking me up at oh dark thirty has got to stop.
The VAWA makes me even crankier. Like they give a shit about women. Either side. Nope. Election time is over- so Roe V Wade can go back in storage for a few years and they will use this to distract.
Makes me wonder what they are doing behind the curtain. Whenever Pravda starts pushing one thing- it is time to go hunting for what they are doing that is really screwing us.

While Elliesdad has adjusted to not having to get up before daylight quite easily, Ellie is taking longer. I’m getting smothered with “I have to pee” puppy kisses before “the dawn’s early light” every day now. While I am her primary caregiver, he was the one who let her out before, but she doesn’t seem to make that connection. As this point he’s still sleeping, but she and I have been up for two hours.

although I completely agree with your reasoning and would add that the REAL War on Women is the one where neither party uses their opportunities to help advance the number of women in power, this will be hard for the R’s to explain away in a sound bite and feeds into their image of a party that is against women. It is so frustrating!!

listening to Representative and Party Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers speak so eloquently throughout the past election cycle about how the Republican approach is great for women is a perfect way for the R’s to pivot to improve their profile with women. Why do they and the Democrats BOTH keep squandering their opportunities? There is a War on women alright, and it is being waged on both sides. Sadly, perception IS reality more than ever.

That would be nice ,what Swanee wrote about Republicans electing more women ,and in general I agree with that ; if the Dems and Vile Progs had not deliberately targeted every woman Republican running , the now epic history of Palin Derangement Syndrome ,and the fact that she refers to the women present in the party as evidence of tokenism .

Anytime the Republicans manage to get a woman or a minority person elected, the vile progs declare it “tokenism”. Even the NAACP is going after Tim Scott. Women and minorities are only allowed to be the property of the Democratic Party. Look how they targeted Mia Love. How dare she be a black Republican and a Mormon to boot?

Family violence doesn’t require a federal bill. We just need local law to do its job. But then there wouldn’t be any way for our senators and congresscritters to score points with their constituents. While Sandy was just another storm where I am, I have friends who had their homes and livelihoods seriously damaged. They’re all livid because the House did not vote on the Hurricane Sandy relief package. I’d like to see the House propose and vote on a bill that only targets relief for real Sandy victims. One that doesn’t include things like aid for Alaska’s fisheries. Last I checked Alaska wasn’t in the path of the storm, but geography is a hard subject to learn apparently. Totally pork free legislation, even “vegan” if you will. Vote on it, pass it, and send it along to the senate. Not passing the VAWA because too many things had been added to it could be the start of a trend if they follow through.

I completely agree with making the family violence issue more of a local law concern. Cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all just doesn’t cut it, given the differences in localities, populations, economics, etc, in the families concerned.

Block grants could be made to states, to be handled at that level, instead of all the national grandstanding for political purposes.

The greatest difference in family violence , imo, has been in education of the police responding to calls, and educating women in abusive relationships , and helping them recover , but that part is difficult . I have seen women with their front teeth knocked out return to relationships . I think the biggest factor overlooked in domestic violence is male violence . I know women can be abusive, but the stats are facts . The overwhelming number of incidents are male offenders . We have to intervene more effectively with men , as well, and not just write them off as lost causes .

Another factor is judges who don’t think beating up your wife/gf/daughter is forgivable. I have read that lawyers for women in domestic abuse cases pray that they get conservative judges because they tend to give the stricter judgements. It’s the liberal ones who fall for the “he was just feeling victimized by an oppressive boss/govt/system and needs counseling” shtick.
Court then sends the abuser to group counseling where he learns new tricks for how to control & abuse his family from experienced abusers. :roll:

Speaking of pork…….all that corporate welfare attached to the fiscal cliff legislation ? Word is, the White House insisted on it all, facilitated through Reid’s Senate, and noone really knew until 10 minutes before they all voted. Had it all written and waiting, since last summer.

What’s even funnier …. they turned down Glenn Beck’s offer because Algore wanted to keep the channel a progressive “voice for the voiceless” :D:D Gee, how did that format work out before? And for Air America?

In the meantime, Algore made the deal to avoid Obamataxes before the Dec31 deadline. Greedy bastard.

I didn’t know “civil rights” came in colors ? Gads, the NAACP always seems to be worse on their own. They tore Bill Cosby to shreds when he said ” the white man didn’t put you in jail, robbing the 7-11 did” .

Very good example. One of the tabloids posted photos of them in bed just looking all happy and cuddly, nothing sexytime. Speaking of, Kim and Kanye think they conceived their baby next to the Vatican last fall.

First of all, 40 million viewers? To be clear, that’s the potential number of households it reaches via subscribers, that doesn’t mean ratings, which has been hovering around the 100k mark last I checked. Hope the AJ’s weren’t guaranteed 40 million views (which is somewhere between the Oscars and Super Bowl numbers on a good year !).